


Winning the Lottery

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron."</i>
</p>
<p>— Spider Robinson</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winning the Lottery

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LJ me_and_thee_100 "Vietnam War" challenge. 
> 
> _The first draft lottery was held on December 1, 1969, and applied to American men born between 1944 and 1950. Drabble takes place the following day, and takes the following liberties with canon (presumes the boys are on the force but not yet partnered at the time, gratuitous selection of Nick's birthdate, assumes Starsky had been drafted)._
> 
>  

_342._

Starsky stared at the newspaper in a state of mingled relief, disbelief, and a twinge of something else that he refused to put a name to, or even acknowledge.

"Starsky?" Hutch sounded concerned, and Starsky wondered why.

"Hmm?" he responded, looking up.

"Is something wrong?" Hutch asked.

"No, no. Not a damn thing. In fact, it's...." Starsky handed Hutch the paper. Hutch looked at the front page, then glanced sharply back at him.

"The draft lottery numbers."

Starsky nodded. "I was checking Nicky's birthday." Starsky pointed to October 9th. "342."

"That's a pretty good number. Lucky dog," Hutch said.

Starsky smiled faintly. "Yeah, he's a lucky dog, alright." He pushed the paper aside and slid off of the stool, nudging Hutch's shoulder on the way. "Gonna hit the john and head out. Wanna have a beer after shift, celebrate Nicky's dog-shit luck?"

"Sure, Starsk. Be careful, huh?"

"You too, buddy." Starsky dropped a few bills onto the counter next to his mostly-uneaten breakfast and left the diner.

Hutch drained his coffee cup and paid his own tab. As he stood, he picked up the newspaper and looked at March 25th.

_343._

Hutch crumpled the paper and threw it away.

**Author's Note:**

> _About the lottery: In 1969, the draft lottery was set up to make the conscription process more "fair": Each day of the year was assigned a number (Jan 1st = 1, Jan 2nd = 2, etc.) All the numbers were put on slips of paper and dumped into a jar, then drawn one by one, like bingo._
> 
> _The first number drawn corresponded to Sep 14th, so all men of draft age who were born on Sep 14th was assigned lottery number 1. They were then the first group to be called to serve in 1970._
> 
> _Clearly then, the higher your number, the odds were in your favor that you wouldn't have to serve. (In actual fact, the last number used was 195, so everyone with higher numbers weren't called at all.)_
> 
> _In the context of the story, Nick getting such a high number was pretty lucky for him. But Starsky would have gotten a higher number, IF he had been in that target group. But, of course, he wasn't. He'd already been drafted some years before._


End file.
